Alethena Brings Security Token Offerings to Switzerland

Published on 14 December 2018 by Cryptovest Staff

What is Alethena and what is its role in the security token ecosystem?

Cryptovest asked Alethena, one of the early supporters of the STO trend, about its approach to legality, transparency, and cybersecurity.

What is Alethena and what is its role in the security token ecosystem?

(Note: Alethena completed the token distribution on December 13.)

How do you ensure that only quality businesses and reliable stock are tokenized? What type of investor are you targeting? Can retail investors, with small-scale investments, access security tokens?

We are fully convinced that every investor, independent of the investment size, should be able to invest in security tokens as blockchain technology can facilitate access and allows greater diversification of investments. Nonetheless, all the regulatory and legal requirements must be fulfilled.

What are the challenges of launching a security token exchange? How is it different compared to current crypto exchanges?

We need to keep in mind that decentralized exchanges have pretty lax requirements, but they also have insignificant trading volumes as only peer-to-peer transactions are enabled. If we are talking about centralized exchanges, the biggest challenge is obtaining the required licenses, the so-called security broker license. We expect the first centralized crypto exchanges to receive this license by the second or third quarter of 2019. A further challenge is control over projects and their listed tokens, whether they fulfill all the required guidelines.

Have you audited the smart contracts? What is Alethena's approach to cyber security?

We have in-house knowledge to execute smart contract audits but are collaborating with our partners from Chain Security (www.chainsecurity.com) in case we need an in-depth audit and/or smart contract optimization.

What token standard are you using? Can the tokens be centrally frozen, revoked, or created? What are the biggest risks with launching, handling, and trading security tokens as opposed to traditional securities?

The biggest risk probably lies in the area of professionalization and standardization of in-house processes at the respective company. While we only have companies of a certain size listed on traditional exchanges, the first ventures to be listed on crypto exchanges will be smaller ones with fewer people, less expertise, and fewer specialists in the area of legal, compliance, and investor relations.

Which is the most suitable European jurisdiction to launch security tokens? Are companies restricted by national laws? Why is Switzerland friendly to this type of asset?

It is quite difficult to say which jurisdiction might be the most suitable one as we are really in the beginning, and there are different advantage and disadvantages in all the areas. Switzerland provides a stable environment and a supportive government.

How will the bear market and capitulation selling affect security tokens? How will their price decouple from Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Neither the author nor the publication assumes any responsibility or liability for any investments, profits, or losses made as a result of this information. Cryptocurrency trading and investing are risky propositions, and market participants are advised to always conduct thorough research.